As I pretend to revise Stanislavski;s role in the Rise of the Director I listen to:

Alas Agnes - The Mystery JetsAwesome band from my local area who've suported British Sea Power, Bloc Party and The FutureheadsThey also sung to me once

Arcade Fire - No Car's GoUplifting track of thier early EP from the best band of this year (bar Maximo Park)

Truely astonishing album (Funeral), and this one ain't half bad neither

The White Stripes - Take Take TakeDescribed by NME as a bluegrass Stan, this is a song off their new LP about Rita Hayworth from the point of view of a besotted fan. Jack White has excelled himself lyrically and musically on this track, a trend that is the case right through Get Behind Me Satan. Apparently Jack White got married yesterday which seems curious in light of the bitter, lonesome feel to the album....hard to know what to believe though when its being billed as his first marriage

February 27, 2005

Its the livelier way to lie in!

Hey Kids!
Its 'In Bed With Jack and Ed

Hope the christmas period was filled with fun and festivities
and everyones New Year was good ol'fun

Okay necessary pleasantries over lets cut to the immensely more interesting chase!
This Sunday sees Radio Warwick's premier (and best looking) DJs cominatcha once more armed with a plethora of T - UNES and some brand new hilarious jingles….all ready, refreshed and raring to go

November 01, 2004

The Clash….The Sex Pistols…The Jam…The Only Onesodd one out?

The Only Ones were contemporaries of all the above bands; groups who broke down – and subsequently have shaped – musical conventions.

Whilst Messrs Rotten, Weller and Strummer are held up as some of the iconic pillars of the twentieth century, you'd be forgiven for shouting "Whooo?" really loudly at Peter Perrett, The Only Ones driving-force. Forget all that, forget the fact that i met him in a dirty rehearsal space (name-dropping!), this would-be-legend is still important. In a musical era when intelligent articulate bands (see Franz, Libertines, Bloc Party) are lauded, and the dark age of boarish, fists-in-the-air, menace-in-the-mosh-pit rock is over (see Oasis, Blur), the influence of angry and articulte poets is higher than ever before.

Like all great bands The Only Ones were ready to break up before they'd even started. Somehow, though, they managed to muddle through three albums worth of innovative and interesting punk, and this disc is cobbled together by Perrett himself largely from those LPs. The major criticism of most British New Wave bands from this period is lack of musical talent, or a one dimensional approach, slipping too eagerly into simple angry music, giving it to the man. This can't be levelled at The Only Ones. Despite coming out of London (like many of the key punk gangs), they are not bound by their situation. They refuse to sing simply about poverty and lack of oppurtunity. Disconcertingly Perrett often sounds more like New-Yoiker Lou Reed than, say, Paul Weller or Jonny Rotten. His songs are slow-burning anti-ballads with perpetual undercurrents of loneliness, of confusion, of dysfunctionality. Unlike The Clash frontman Joe Strummer (AKA The Second Coming) Perrett is not afraid of the L-Word (Love....not Lollipops). He is heartbroken and sinned against: "Some girls tell you they're lovin' ya/but love is just destruction/ disguised under another name" (No Solution), his songs meandering from enigmatic love poems to innocent nursery rhymes.

Perrett's dark, vulnerable lyrics are matched by his reluctant, seething singing; he can't stop the words coming out, he just has to fucking sing this maaan. His voice is wonderfully emotive and isolated. He is also brilliantly supported by his talented musicians who mould and melt the songs into weird and wonderful shapes, taking them off into unexpected tangents. The progessive, yet simple and haunting guitar parts are very reminiscent of Television or Patti Smith, and lets be honest, that is the only thing Razorlight are living off at the moment. The Only Ones, however, can't be similarly accused of cynical plagarism and a lack of creativity. They are living it. They are getting dirty in the thick of the action. They're on the front line with the rest of the New Wave. Its just that history has chosen to forget them.

The album really benefits from being a greatest-hits package, especially for an Only Ones beginner. Each song is interesting and varied, but the album is worth getting simply for the stone cold classic that is Another Girl, Another Planet. Those familiar with The Libertines' story will recognise this incredible song as one that Pete Doherty claimed to have written before he actually heard the original! Perrett also recently joined the Libertines on stage to play it. Whereas Doherty's recent acoustic version of the song (available on his Babyshambles bootleg The Whitechapel Demonstrations) is great, The Only Ones storm nonchalantly through this ode to an other-wordly woman, before finishing confidently and abruptly. Confused and jubilant, anthemic and poetic, Another Girl, Another Planet is the prime example of Perrett's obsession with writing mysteriously about heroin and the song features some superb lyrics: "I always flirt with death/ I could kill, but I don't care about it", "You get under my skin/ I don't find it irritating".You Need to Hear This Song. If You Take Nothing Else From This Review, Take This!(just download it off DC++ if you can't afford the album...ssshhhh!)

The Only Ones have more than three chords. The Only Ones do not play at reckless, head-rush, G-Force speed. The Only Ones don't make you want to rip your clothes up, insert safety pins in your nose and gob on the stage. This Is Punk Though!... especially compared with todays unimaginative, commercialised, controversial-for-the-sakes-of-it 'punk' (Lets be honest Owen, punk only really existed between 1977 and 1978)

I picked up this album in the marketplace CD stall for only a fiver. You can probably find it on the 'net for even less. Look out your window. I guarentee there's a kid who can just about hum a couple of their singles walking around in Libertines T-Shirt like they are Nirvana Hoodies. This is a time when Razorlight can become one of Britain's biggest bands with their conveyor belt, rip-off album. New Wave is back, but the original is always better. The Clash are in the middle of a glorious and deserved revival. You really should hear The Only Ones. Their fucking good maaan.

For anyone doubting the supremacy of Dominic Masters(Others' frontman), bow down immediately

They are superb
stage divin' et al

We (my RaW cohorts Vlad Skofenko and Tesco) got to interview him - and Agent Blue as well (support act, big stars in the future mark me words) – and he was lovely. Totally focussed on us for 'bout an hour, revealing some quite private stuff.
He let us stay in his dressing-room and hang aound before and after the show, surrounding by rock'n'roll backstage cliches and a huge amount of indie fashionistas.
Apart from frontin' this up'n'comin band this bloke is extremely friendly, and a fucking great showman too.

We missed the first band The Homewreckers Club on account of wanting to stay in the dressing-room and pretend we were cool, but also recovering from our mammoth fag and chocolate hunt around Coventry with Agent Blue (why the fuck is nowhere open in this so-called 'City' past nine o'clock?)

However I hot footed down into the cosy ickle arena for Agent Blue cos they were cool ole blokes and wanted to know how they scrubbed up on stage.
Turns out that the demure lanky lad that we'd chatted to about music and Subway sandwiches turned into a crazy mix between Richard Ashcroft and Liam Gallagher by just scruffing up his hair. He spent the majority of his stage time balancing precariously on the barriers, sliding and twisting aggressively, but with a twinkle in his eye for the hesitant crowd. He was backed by a bunch of young fellas who meant business. Dolled up in army shirts and angular haircuts they churned out a remarkably big and assured sound (one of the best i have heard from a support band), sweeping and ripping away, topped off with the frontman's repetitive, authorative wails.
Their set had come and gone in a "fuck me they're good", the band departing before the crowd could muster enough breath to summon them back on.Go see Agent Blue...before they are too big and you can only make out their spikey hair and classic rock'n'roll stage moves

Where Agent Blue look like they have studied the rock-rule-book and are ready to break through and join their heroes, The Others do exactly what they say on the tin. They are 'them other ones'. They don't look like they are in a band, lest of all a band together. See 'em in the street and you will give them a second look, but only 'cos the singer looks like he hasn't slept for weeks, and the bass player seems to have come straight from the 'Grand Robert Smith Lookalike Tournament'

It seems a Swedish porn-star (drums), a Prop forward (guitar), a Goth freak (bass) and a Workin-class hero (vocals) have all been locked in a room together with nothing but class-A drugs and their instruments, and told to create the most basic yet inspirational music this side of Pete Doherty's acoustic guitar.
Oppurtunists amongst you will jump on the NME bandwagon and role towards credibility on the back of The Others' street sound, but then again, that's great. That's what they want.
The Others' plan is this…Party with "the kids", make 'em your fans, give 'em your mobile number, release seemingly mindlessly obvious, sloganeering records and watch the buzz grow.
Underneath however the music reveals itself to be dark and inventive. It is both anthemic and accessible, while remaining to unique to be truely mainstream.
It is all a wirey mess of Joy Division bassline and shouty vocals. It is grunge and punk and indie and rock and electronic and brilliant.

I have to admit as one who'd consider himself vaguely 'priviliged' i felt a little pretentious singing at the top of my lungs to "This is for the Poor, and not you rich kids", especially when you know that Dominic Masters was born into council houses and drug dealing parents.
However, this problem is unavoidable. The Frenzy that the band whipped up in the front of the venue was akin to any i have seen (Franz, Libertines, White Stripes), with afficionados helping one another over the barriers and into the very welcoming arms of DomOthers.
The Others are often accussed of being one-dimensional and lowest denominator stuff. It is satisfying, then, that almost every song sounds fresh and different, with some really great tunes in the set ('How I Nearly Lost You', 'Stan Bowles', 'Lackey')…all with important messages and interesting lyrics.
Everyone left the night with a warm glow and tired legs, glowing from the warmth and passion of Dominic Masters.
With an album out in January you should hop on the bandwagon now, 'cos they are definitely worth it.

"Everybody scream if you is a Fresher; Everybody scream if you is in Rootes; everybody scream if you is in Arthur Vick; everybody scream if you is in Benefactors"(Why Can't We Scream If We Is In WESTWOOD?)

This professional and concise review brought to you by Jumpin Jack Howson and Crown Jules Maynard (currently missing, presumed exhausted from WESTWOOD lovin')